Hybrid Experiments: Hope
by KyrieFalcon
Summary: As the scientist lay dying on the floor of the shattered lab, she thought about what she and her dead colleagues had done. Was there hope for her world? Oneshot.


The Hybrid experiments

I've always felt fascinated with the creators of the Hybrid species. Did they feel responsibility for what they had done? How did they view their "children"?

I have no answers. But when in doubt, write fanfiction, because you can over-complicate everything and get away with it. :P

So read and enjoy my musings. Reviews (and flames) welcomed.

…Kyrie

_Disclaimer: I sadly do not own StarCraft, Blizzard, its affiliates, or indeed anything but my unimaginative plotlines. It makes me cry sometimes._

The Hybrid experiments.

When did things start to go wrong?

The unnamed scientist lay dying on the floor of the dark laboratory, listening to the quiet drip of nutrient fluid onto broken glass. She knew that everywhere around her sprawled the corpses of her colleagues, and in the shadows, their cause of death lurked, waiting.

They had failed to understand that it had a personality, that it was frightened and upset and more powerful than they knew. When they had succeeded in splicing the genes together, and watched the embryos form within the growth tanks, they had not been seeing new life taking shape. They had only seen a tool, a weapon to gain control over the Zerg and Protoss.

And now they lay dead after all her dire warnings.

The sound of quiet whimpering echoed through the deserted lab and her heart reached out to its source. Even dying, she felt pity for the Hybrid child. She had joined the project because she was fascinated with the terrible beauty of going against creation, with the power of the child who would change each race forever. Yet her efforts to spread unity had ended in nothing but this.

Something heavy quietly scraped against the floor. A tail? A body. The Hybrid was moving closer to her, sensing the psionic emanations from her dying brain. She felt cool relief. She wanted to end this quickly. Her thoughts moved in the direction of death and she suddenly remembered something she had been told as a girl.

The Protoss could live after death, connected to what they called the Khala, which was the collected energies of the race. She wondered if the half-Protoss creature sliding towards her was capable of connecting to such a sacred force.

The distorted shadow thrown against the wall halted, seemed to focus towards her. She, a former Ghost with limited psionic potential, suddenly experienced an explosion of thought in her drifting mind.

She feebly cried out as pure raw force swirled unbroken around her, somehow bright and inquisitive, and in the midst of the storm she caught a single word spoken in Terran.

_Khala?_

The shadow came closer, seeking, but she was no longer afraid. This creature would hurt her as much as a child would. But something within her wanted to find the truth before she passed on.

With an effort she reached out with her broken mind and touched the vibrancy of its thoughts just as it came into her view.

She had a fleeting impression of delicate Protoss features melded with Zerg weaponry, the nerve endings longer than natural in a Protoss child, and sharp angular protrusions of bone and organic steel everywhere; deadly, perfectly balanced.

And to her, it was beautiful.

It stopped, regarded her with brilliant dark eyes alive with intelligence. It hadn't quite learned how to use its limbs to walk yet, it seemed.

She smiled weakly and thought about how perfect it was.

_Do…you know…Khala? _Its voice was halting, but full of vibrant clarity.

Yes, she thought.

_Please…I need…I need to…connect?_

I don't know how.

_I hear. There are voices…some…Protoss? Yes. Protoss. Murmuring…_

I'm not Protoss. I'm sorry. But this might help.

She was fading away; every word and every thought was an effort. But she told it to open the drawer beside it and take out one of the Khaydarin crystals that were there, used to power the machines.

When the Hybrid saw the faint blue glow it seemed surprised.

_Energy. This is…power._

Take one, she said, and watched as it tentatively grasped the heavy crystal with both hands and drew it out. The light vanished.

_It is dark when I touch it._

That's all right. Try to…um…listen for the other Protoss and…um…

_Light! _

And the crystal flared violent blue and the dying scientist caught a whisper of infinite voices through her connection with the Hybrid. The voices of every Protoss that ever existed, linked and bound together with the power of one.

_One called…cannot say…one says that he will…help._

That's good…

She was dying and the Hybrid had noticed her psionic output fade. But before she died she had to ask something.

Were the others like you? So innocent?

The child was silent. But when it sent again its mind held a furious clarity.

_Others were all killed by Terrans, humans who took them apart, and they sent to me screaming with pain before their sending cords were cut off._

You were all connected? You knew what happened?

_My friends die because…you think they are not alive._

So you killed everyone in revenge.

They had deserved no less. She had been right. They were conscious, intelligent; not the mindless Zerg or the sophisticated Protoss, but a whole new type of being that combined the best of both races into one bright spark. She had known this for a very long time, somewhere deep inside.

There was hope for the world. They had not created their own destruction…Happiness spread through her still body as she looked into the depths of the Hybrid's brilliant eyes.

_I make every Terran who…cause my friends to die…to know what they did and die inside. You thought we were bad? That is why you are fading? I am sorry then. _Its voice almost keened with sorrow.

I didn't stop them when they took the other Hybrids apart.

…I'm sorry too...

_I will help you to be in the Khala…you are Terran, but you have energy._

As the scientist drifted away the Hybrid touched her mind lightly, showed her a brilliant blaze of light that somehow had one word reverberating around in its depths, over and over and over again until her soul was finally freed to be in the radiance of the Khala.

_Hope._


End file.
